Family Court Can Take Toll On Its Judges

Sometimes, Cases End Up Ruling Their Lives

December 26, 1995|By Darlene Gavron Stevens, Tribune Staff Writer.

It wasn't until family court Judge Susan Snow collapsed in her courtroom and had to be carried out on a gurney that she admitted to herself that she was suffering from burnout, a syndrome the tightly knit judicial profession has only recently begun to address openly.

Day after day of doling out life-changing edicts to an endless parade of disillusioned spouses and scared siblings in Cook County Circuit Court in Bridgeview had taken a toll.

"Judicial burnout is a fact I acknowledge and with which I am sympathetic," said Snow, now nationally known for teaching other judges how to monitor themselves for signs of bench stress. "I wouldn't still be here after 14 years if I hadn't found some ways to remain optimistic and healthy."

The topic was revived in family-law circles coast to coast after a respected Will County Court judge ordered a 12-year-old Lisle girl to jail and her 8-year-old sister to house arrest after they locked arms and refused to visit their dad in Charlotte, N.C. The girls had accused their father of emotional abuse, which he has repeatedly denied.

Judge Ludwig Kuhar can't talk about why he issued the July 24 ruling, which is being reviewed by the 3rd District Illinois Appellate Court.

But the unusual case, dubbed a "conscience call" by an appellate judge, has triggered flashbacks among many veterans of divorce wars, particularly judges such as Kuhar who are driven to resolve similar standoffs each day.

"It makes perfect sense to anyone who has spent time on a family court bench," said Judge Douglas McNish, an ardent believer in divorce court reform and the founder of a required parental education course for divorcing couples in Hawaii.

"The stress gets to judges, especially those who care, the ones who wake up at night and start thinking, `I'm not making a difference anymore.' "

McNish and others deplored the jailing of the 12-year-old, even though they could empathize with Kuhar's situation. Many said the case is typical of the pressure-cooker atmosphere of family court--which judges say is even more acute during the holidays, when parents fight over the hour and minute of promised visits--and the ever-present potential for bench burnout.

The syndrome is defined as a judge who is having a hard time making decisions or who can't issue a decision "without losing his or her temper," said Timothy C. Evans, presiding judge of the Cook County Circuit Court Domestic Relations Division. "It might be someone who is attempting to duck tough assignments or who is unable to resolve certain types of assignments."

Burnout among family court judges is hard to track statistically, although their burgeoning workload is clear: The National Center for State Courts said domestic-relations cases, at 4.5 million filings a year, are the fastest growing segment of civil suits.

The influence of family court burnout also can be seen in the growing number of measures instituted to fight it: judicial support groups, college courses, even a schedule change starting Jan. 1 in Cook County that gives Domestic Relations judges more variety and control over their caseload.

The modifications will rotate the types of cases judges handle every six months and will make it more likely that one judge will hear a case from start to finish, Evans said.

The measures are important because of the potential damage burnout can cause. The system hinges on judges making level-headed decisions that families must follow for years to come. What child stays with what parent? Is the parent abusive or is the child being coached? Who is lying? Who pays the college tuition?

"What a Domestic Relations judge does is watch families get dismantled every day," said Charlotte Wenzel, associate director of the Citizens Committee on the Juvenile Court, a non-profit watchdog group that works to improve the judicial system.

"How do they process that and manage their own lives? How do you manage the emotion that gets stirred up?"

Judges need to be centered and vigilant about stress because they are supposed to provide structure for families in chaos, said Wenzel, a licensed social worker who has been an adviser on domestic-relations cases for 15 years.

"Folks with wisdom usually have time to think," she said. "I don't think judges have that luxury."

Heavy caseload and emotional drain make family court a less-than-ideal assignment, so it's in the system's interest to keep turnover down, say other experts.

"Turnover has not been as high in the last three years, but we do lose very good judges who burn out," said Evans, who presides over Cook County's 32 Domestic Relations judges.

Family court judges are particularly vulnerable to burnout because of the "absolute repetitiveness of it," said Kenneth A. Rohrs, president of the National Judicial College in Reno, a 32-year-old institution that trains some 3,500 judges a year.

"A good judge is careful that he doesn't treat a case like all the others," said Rohrs, a former family court judge.